This invention relates to an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which are suitable for recording various types of information, including video information and/or audio information, and further computer data, onto a recording medium.
In the information recording method and device, various types of information are recorded continuously onto an information storage medium without logical intermission. In the information storage medium, the recorded information includes information about a data structure that enables the recorded information to be managed effectively and reproduced continuously.
There are laser disks (LDs) and digital video (DVD) disks used as information storage mediums on which video information or audio information has been recorded. The information storage mediums, however, are only for playback use and have no defective area thereon.
There are DVD-RAM disks used as mediums for storing computer information. This type of medium enables additional recording. In addition, a method of replacing a defective area occurring on the information storage medium has been established.
One known method of replacing a defective area occurring in recording computer information on a RAM disk is a linear replacement process.
This process is a method of, when a defect has occurred, securing a replacement area in a spare area secured in another area physically separate from a user area and setting a logical block number (LBN) in the replacement area. In this method, when a defective area has occurred in the middle of recording or reproducing information onto or from a disk, the optical head has to record the data in the spare area in a physically separate position and thereafter return to the position where it interrupted the recording and resume recording the subsequent data. This results in the frequent movement of the optical head.
In the computer system, the control hierarchy is divided into a video recording and reproducing application software (hereinafter, abbreviated as recording/reproducing application) layer, a file system layer, and an optical disk drive (ODD) layer in the section for processing information and recording and reproducing information.
Commands acting as interfaces have been defined between the layers. Addresses dealt with at each layer differ from one level of hierarchy to another. Specifically, the recording/reproducing application layer deals with audio and video addresses (commonly known as AV addresses), the file system layer deals with logical sector numbers (LSN) or logical block numbers (LBN) on the basis of AV addresses, and the optical disk drive layer deals with physical sector numbers (PSN) on the basis of logical sector numbers (LSN) or logical block numbers (LBN).
Now, consider a case where video information or audio information according to the recording format of a DVD video disk is recorded on a DVD-RAM disk. As described above, when the linear replacement process is performed as a method of processing (replacing) a defect, each time a defective ECC block is encountered in recording, the head has to move back and fourth between the user area explained later and the spare area.
Such frequent access of the optical head in recording permits the amount of video information stored in the buffer memory to exceed the memory capacity because of the transfer speed and data amount of the input data, the access time in recording, the buffer memory capacity, and others, which makes continuous recording impossible.
Although it is hoped that video information to be recorded is managed in the video recording and reproducing application software layer without the burden of managing defects on the information storage medium, if many defective areas have occurred on the information storage medium, a conventional method permits the influence of defects in the information storage medium to extend even to the video recording and reproducing application software layer, which makes stable video information management difficult.
Furthermore, in the case of recordable and reproducible disks, there has been a desire that they should be used for not only AV data but also various types of information recording.
(1) It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which have specific recording units set therein and enable environmental setting to achieve stable video information management (specifically, a video information recording, reproducing, and editing method in a system) even if a defective area or another data area exists in the specific recording units. According to the present invention, there are also provided an information recording device and an information reproducing device which have a most suitable system for realizing the above environment.
(2) Another object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which improve the method of managing AV file identification information to make it easier to identify and manage different types of data.
(3) Another object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which maintain the boundary between specific data block units (for example, ECC units) using unused extents, thereby facilitating the error correction management of data and the additional recording process and management of subsequent data, when AV data is recorded.
(4) Another object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which not only search in advance for a place where AV data is to be recorded to prevent data from being recorded in another data area or a defective area, but also have the function of securing a recording area to prevent errors in recording.
(5) Another object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which always write data in, for example, error correction codes (ECC) block units in recording data in such a manner that they perform reading control at the beginning of writing, search for the recorded state of the error correction codes, and write data while maintaining the block units of the error correction codes, thereby improving the data writing efficiency and assuring the reliability of the error correcting process of data.
(6) Another object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method, an information recording device, an information reproducing device, and an information storage medium which are additionally provided with a file partial delete command, thereby enabling editing to be done more easily.
The foregoing objects are accomplished as follows:
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording method for recording information on an information storage medium by using (i) an application layer or a video recording layer, having a file including an object, (ii) a layer for a file system, (iii) an optical disk drive layer or a physical layer, the application layer or the video recording layer, the layer for the file system, and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer being provided for controlling information recording in which the application layer or the video recording layer uses an AV address, the layer for the file system uses a logical sector number (LSN) or a logical block number (LBN), and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer uses a physical sector number (PSN) or the logical sector number (LSN). The information recording method further uses a contiguous data area (CDA) which serves as a set of contiguous physical sectors in the information storage medium, and in which some physical sectors may be skipped for recording. The information storage medium includes (a) an AV file for storing audio data or video data, and (b) defective management area information including information of a defective area on the information storage medium.
The information recording method further includes the steps of associating the logical sector number (LSN) with the physical sector number (PSN); associating the logical block number (LBN) with the logical sector number (LSN); associating the AV address with the logical block number (LBN), the AV address being defined as a relative logical block number (assigned value) of a logical block within the AV file, which is assigned as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d; and searching for an unrecorded area on the information storage medium; searching the defective management area information for the information of the defective area; ensuring an area to be recorded in the unrecorded area, based on a contiguous data area which permits short skipping when a defective area is included therein, and has a size variable in accordance with the defective area; and recording AV data in the contiguous data area in such a manner as to skip the defective areas.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording apparatus for recording information on an information storage medium, by using (i) an application layer or a video recording layer, which has a file including an object, (ii) a layer for a file system, (iii) an optical disk drive layer or a physical layer, the application layer or the video recording layer, wherein the layer for the file system, and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer being provided for controlling information recording in which the application layer or the video recording layer uses an AV address, the layer for the file system uses a logical sector number (LSN) or a logical block number (LBN), and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer uses a physical sector number (PSN) or the logical sector number (LSN), and (iv) a contiguous data area (CDA) which serves as a set of contiguous physical sectors in the information storage medium, and in which some physical sectors may be skipped for recording, and the information storage medium including (a) an AV file for storing audio data or video data, and (b) defective management area information including information of a defective area on the information storage medium.
The information recording apparatus includes means for associating the logical sector number (LSN) with the physical sector number (PSN); means for associating the logical block number (LBN) with the logical sector number (LSN); means for associating the AV address with the logical block number (LBN), the AV address being defined as a relative logical block number (assigned value) of a logical block within the AV file, which is assigned as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d, and means for searching for an unrecorded area on the information storage medium; means for searching the defective management area information for the information of the defective area; means for ensuring an area to be recorded in the unrecorded area, based on a contiguous data area which permits short skipping when a defective area is included therein, and has a size variable in accordance with the defective area; and means for recording AV data on the contiguous data area in such a manner as to skip the defective area.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information reproducing method for reproducing information on an information storage medium, by using (i) an application layer or a video recording layer, having a file including an object, (ii) a layer for a file system, (iii) an optical disk drive layer or a physical layer, the application layer or the video recording layer, wherein the layer for the file system, and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer being provided for controlling information recording in which the application layer or the video recording layer uses an AV address, the layer for the file system uses a logical sector number (LSN) or a logical block number (LBN), and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer uses a physical sector number (PSN) or the logical sector number (LSN), and (iv) a contiguous data area (CDA) which serves as a set of contiguous physical sectors in the information storage medium, and in which some physical sectors may be skipped for recording, and the information storage medium which includes (a) an AV file for storing audio data or video data, and (b) defective management area information containing information of a defective area on the information storage medium.
The information method of recording AV data in the AV file include the steps of searching for an unrecorded area on the information storage medium; searching the defective management area information for the information of the defective area; ensuring an area to be recorded in the unrecorded area, based on a contiguous data area which permits short skipping when a defective area is included therein, and has a size variable in accordance with the defective area; and recording AV data in the contiguous data area in such a manner as to skip the defective area, the information reproducing method comprising the steps of: associating the logical sector number (LSN) with the physical sector number (PSN); associating the logical block number (LBN) with the logical sector number (LSN); associating the AV address with the logical block number (LBN), the AV address being defined as a relative logical block number (assigned value) of a logical block within the AV file, which is assigned as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d; and reproducing AV data recorded in the contiguous data area.
In accordance with a further aspect, the present invention provides an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing information on an information storage medium, by using (i) an application layer or a video recording layer, having a file including an object, (ii) a layer for a file system, (iii) an optical disk drive layer or a physical layer, the application layer or the video recording layer, the layer for the file system, and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer being provided for controlling information recording in which the application layer or the video recording layer uses an AV address, the layer for the file system uses a logical sector number (LSN) or a logical block number (LBN), and the optical disk drive layer or the physical layer uses a physical sector number (PSN) or the logical sector number (LSN), (iv) a contiguous data area (CDA) which serves as a set of contiguous physical sectors in the information storage medium, and in which some physical sectors may be skipped for recording.
The information storage medium includes (a) an AV file for storing audio data or video data, and (b) defective management area information containing information of a defective area on the information storage medium wherein a method of recording AV data in the AV file comprising the steps of searching for an unrecorded area on the information storage medium; searching the defective management area information for the information of the defective area; ensuring an area to be recorded in the unrecorded area, based on a contiguous data area which permits short skipping when a defective area is included therein, and has a size variable in accordance with the defective area; and recording AV data on the contiguous data area in such a manner as to skip the defective area. The information reproducing apparatus includes means for associating the logical sector number (LSN) with the physical sector number (PSN); means for associating the logical block number (LBN) with the logical sector number (LSN); means for associating the AV address with the logical block number (LBN), the AV address being defined as a relative logical block number assigned value) of a logical block within the AV file, which is assigned as xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d; and means for reproducing AV data on the contiguous data area.
An information recording medium is preferably configured to store the AV data and management information obtained by the recording method, and an information recording medium is preferably configured to store the AV data and management information obtained by the recording apparatus. The information reproducing apparatus is preferably provided for reproducing the AV data and management information recorded on the information recording medium.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.